Bout To Make Me Leave Home – The Caps conclude a three-game homestand on Saturday night when they finish up their season series with the Florida Panthers. The Caps will be seeking to finish the homestand with a winning record; they’ve split the first two games of the homestand.
Meanwhile, Florida will be seeking to rebound from a 9-1 thrashing at the hands of the Carolina Hurricanes last night in Raleigh. And the Panthers are finishing a six-game road trip here tonight in the District, and a victory would give them a split on the trip.
“You’re going to get their best shot tonight,” says Caps coach Spencer Carbery. “A team like that with the experience they have, you know they’re obviously unhappy with the way things went last night. I listened to [Panthers coach] Paul [Maurice] after the game, and a veteran team like that, you know the back-to-back is going to have nothing to do with their performance tonight. They’re going to want to respond, and it’s our job to meet that challenge.”
In the first two games of the homestand, the Caps have waded slowly into the waters. They fell down by two goals in each game, successfully staging a third-period comeback on Tuesday against Montreal in a 3-2 overtime win, but falling a goal short two nights later against the Sharks by the same score in regulation.
As they take on the two-time defending champs tonight, the Caps know they’ve got to have a better start and they need to be able to play their brand of hockey for more of the game’s 60 minutes than in either of the two previous games on the homestand.
“I think there’s a couple of cues,” says Carbery. “But I would say that maybe to most obvious or the simplest one to just paint a picture is us being on the same page with playing very, very north and direct. So, not messing around; we are going from point A to point B to point C, all together at five, and we’re not slowing things down, we’re not second-guessing each other, and we’re not bringing a ton of pucks back when we don’t need to.
“We’ve got to get more [northward movement] consistently. It’s happening sometimes, and I’m not saying we’re not doing it exclusively. We are, but we’re not doing it for long enough, and we just need to stay committed to it for longer, I would say.”
The Caps have played 48 games this season, and they know what it takes to get the results they need, it’s just a matter of having the collective mindset and determination to get it done.
“Every night, there's two or three things that our team has to be good at,” says Caps center Nic Dowd. “Our work ethic has to be good, our defensive zone structure has to be good, because ultimately breakdowns are going to happen and mistakes are going to happen. We just need to be there to help each other out, and then we need to be committed to forechecking.
“At times it can get a little boring, right? But I think good teams, teams that win consistently, they wear teams down. And then you have those games where maybe special teams takes over, and your power play has two or three goals and 5-on-5 is going great. But then within those weeks and months of the season, you’re going to have games where the puck touches [are off], and maybe you’re just not feeling right that game, and we have to be able to lean on certain things like our [defensive] zone structure, our forecheck and stuff like that, to get us through those tight games, and through tough stretches.”
One Wing – Washington made a transaction on Friday afternoon, recalling winger Ivan Miroshnichenko from AHL Hershey and placing Justin Sourdif on injured reserve, retroactive to Jan. 11, and making him ineligible to play against his former team tonight.
Miroshnichenko was Washington’s first-round choice (20th overall) in the 2022 NHL Draft. He debuted with the Capitals on Dec. 20, 2023 and has logged 41 total NHL games scattered across the last three seasons, totaling three goals and seven assists for 10 points, and with a dozen PIM.
Earlier this season, he skated in a couple of games with the Capitals without recording a point, averaging 9:39 in ice time. Now a couple of weeks shy of his 22nd birthday and in the final season of his three-year entry level contract, Miroshnichenko has six goals and 10 assists for 16 points in 20 games with Hershey this season.
In 120 career AHL regular season games, Miroshnichenko has scored 38 goals and added 45 assists for 83 points, and he has added 10 goals and seven assists for 17 points in 28 Calder Cup playoff games.
Whether Miroshnichenko gets into the lineup tonight or not is unclear, but he will need to pass through waivers to be reassigned to the AHL next season, so the time has arrived for him to show he belongs in the NHL.
“We’re working through some lineup things,” says Carbery. “So if he gets in, a lot of the things that we saw, I liked the games that he played for us, even though it was in a limited role. It looked to me like he has taken some steps, [he is playing] a little bit more of a mature game, [making] some good decisions, good position all over the ice 95 percent of the time, attacking the net. I noticed him getting his shot off multiple times, which in previous stints when he was here in previous years, was a little bit more challenging. So those were good signs.
“So, a lot of the same, of just earning opportunity with good, strong, reliable play and opportunities to use his skill set to attack the net and shoot the puck. I’m looking for him to do the same.”
In The Nets – Logan Thompson gets the net for Washington tonight as he takes a second crack at nailing down his 18th victory of the season. In his last five starts, Thompson is 2-2-1 with a 2.17 GAA and a .924 save pct.
Lifetime against the Panthers, Thompson is 4-3-0 with a 3.31 GAA and an .894 save pct. in seven appearances, all of them starts.
Veteran Sergei Bobrovsky was in net for all nine Carolina goals last night, four of which came on the power play. He made 26 saves on the night, and the Caps are certain to see backup Daniil Tarasov tonight in DC.
On the season, Tarasov is 5-6-2 with a 2.81 GAA and a .904 save pct. in 14 appearances (13 starts). One of Tarasov’s victories came at the Caps’ expense in Florida on Nov. 13. In Tarasov’s most recent start at home on Jan. 4, he earned a 2-1 win over the Colorado Avalanche with a 27-save performance.
Lifetime against the Capitals, Tarasov is 2-2-0 with a 4.47 GAA and a .862 save pct. in four appearances, all starts.
All Down The Line – Here’s how the Caps and Panthers might look on Saturday night in the District:
WASHINGTON
Forwards
8-Ovechkin, 17-Strome, 53-Frank
21-Protas, 24-McMichael, 9-Leonard
63-Miroshnichenko, 29-Lapierre, 20-Leason
22-Duhaime, 26-Dowd, 72-Beauvillier
Defensemen
42-Fehervary, 74-Carlson
6-Chychrun, 3-Roy
38-Sandin, 57-van Riemsdyk
Goaltenders
48-Thompson
79-Lindgren
Healthy Extras
15-Milano
47-Chisholm
52-McIlrath
Injured/Out
34-Sourdif (upper body)
43-Wilson (lower body)
80-Dubois (abdomen)
FLORIDA
Forwards
27-Luostarinen, 15-Lundell, 13-Reinhart
23-Verhaeghe, 9-Bennett, 10-Greer
95-Vilmanis, 17-Rodrigues, 11-Samoskevich
70-Boqvist, 79-Schwindt, 71-Kunin
Defensemen
42-Forsling, 5-Ekblad
77-Mikkola, 26-Balinskis
6-Sebrango, 2-Petry
Goalies
40-Tarasov
72-Bobrovsky
Healthy Extras
18-Gregor
22-Bjornfot
53-Studnicka
Injured/Out
3-Jones (upper body)
7-Kulikov (upper body)
12-Gadjovich (upper body)
16-Barkov (knee)
19-Tkachuk (groin)
63-Marchand (undisclosed)
92-Nosek (knee)
